Man dies, two FDNY firefighters injured after e-bike battery ignites in Bronx apartment

A 34-year-old man died and two firefighters were injured after a moped’s lithium-ion battery caught fire inside his Bronx apartment.

It was the city’s fifth fatality this year caused by lithium-ion battery fires, the FDNY said.

The fire inside the third-floor apartment on Beaumont Ave. near Grote St. in Belmont erupted inside the home’s kitchen around 11:50 p.m. Thursday.

The victim had left his moped outside but was charging the battery when it set the apartment ablaze.

Responding firefighters found the victim, believed to be a tenant of the apartment, unconscious and rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he later died.

Another building tenant suffered serious injuries and was also taken to St. Barnabas Hospital. Two responding firefighters suffered minor injuries and were treated at the hospital, an FDNY spokesman said.

A woman who lives next door recalled seeing one of her neighbors standing at a window of the burning building and preparing to jump before firefighters rescued him.

“I saw the smoke shooting out and the guy was at the window looking like he wants to jump out,” said the 51-year-old neighbor, who gave her name as Ingrid. “I heard one of the guys that lives in the building telling the guy that was trying to jump through the window to get low, don’t let the smoke get him. Then the fire truck came and they got him out.”

Ingrid said the fire has left her shaken.

“It’s very frightening, because it’s so close to home,” she said.

The victim of Thursday’s fire was an honest man who made a clean living, according to another neighbor, who said she’s distraught over the man’s tragic death.

“You see him all the time because, you know, people got to go to work,” said Ada Jimenez, 60. “He never disrespect nobody. Wasn’t a troublemaker. There’s an honest, working person, young person, kept [to] himself. This could have been avoided.”

The fire was put out within 40 minutes. More than 60 firefighters and city emergency medical technicians were called to handle the flames.

Firefighters found the battery inside the apartment where the blaze broke out. FDNY officials have determined that the lithium-ion battery caused the fire.

A hazmat team was dispatched to retrieve the lithium-ion battery and prevent it from reigniting, officials said.

Since 2022, high-voltage lithium-ion batteries have become the leading cause of fire deaths in New York City, though the number of deaths has dropped dramatically this year, FDNY officials said. At this time last year, 12 people across the city had died in e-bike battery fires — more than twice the number so far for this year.

Most recently, 69-year-old Georgiy Kizyun died when he was trapped in his Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, apartment on Oct. 16 by a fire sparked by an exploding e-bike battery.

FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Dan Flynn said then that Kizyun was unable to escape after a lithium-ion battery stored in his apartment blew up.

“The device was blocking the egress of the person that succumbed to their injuries,” Flynn told reporters outside the Brooklyn building. “Do not put these devices between you and the front door. You have to have a plan. Make sure you can get out.”